Heading east, we landed next at Lake Ashtabula. Roger caught a walleye we could keep. The rest of the fish we caught weren’t walleyes so we put them back. This lake is kind of “overfished” because it isn’t very big and there are a lot of private homes on the lake. That means it gets a lot of use all year long with warm-weather fishing and ice-fishing. Another thing we noticed at both Lake Sakakawea and here is that, while there are probably 15 to 20 National Fish Hatchery ponds between the two places, they are all empty. Hope that doesn’t...

Today we experienced the Sheyenne River Valley National Scenic ByWay. Out across "flat" North Dakota, every so often you run across a river valley that suggests you're not in ND at all. It is the longest river in ND (581 miles long) and is entirely in the state ... starts in ND ... ends in ND.
Lots of Railroad / Native American / Agricultural information as the pics show.
This was a nice distraction from the otherwise darn long / flat / and kind of boring trip through ND.
More to come in the days ahead.

Tonight we stopped in Valley City, ND at the campground where we spent several days on our way west. As we got closer to the campground, the wind was getting stronger and as we were setting up, the wind ripped the door out of Rick's hand and slam the door against the door awning arm shattering the outside pane of the double panes glass. It broke the mechanism that keeps the door from opening too wide and bent the awning arm.....that was one more gust of wind! So, Rick got to spend the rest of the afternoon on the phone with the insurance...

Hi All, We will be staying here two nights. We are going to meet and have dinner with another railroad guy, another one of whom we have never met in person. That will be fun. Pretty warm here in ND, I believe it's suppose to be 90. Now that the states are larger it's easier to read the map! We met my Railroad buddy and we had a nice visit, he will stop by again after he is done with work today. I sure am glad we have taken the time to stop and meet these folks. Jim has a buddy he wants to stop and see in western ND when we leave here. This...

We've spent the last few days in Valley City, ND in wonderful 70 and low 80 degree weather....even had to wear jeans some! We played leap-frog with another RV during the drive from Sioux Falls and as we were setting up, they pulled onto the next campsite. We went over to laugh with them about leap-frogging and realized we know them! They camped beside us in Houghton, MI last summer! With all the people we have met traveling, we have never unintentionally seen anyone twice and had begun to doubt we ever would. Cool!
This area is a pretty,...

Thursday began at Valley City, ND and after a quick breakfast we hit the road west toward Bismark and eventually Montana. Again it is a day of intermittent rain and high winds. We are so tires of the head winds and the buffeting. Not to mention the reduction is mileage.
Not a lot of take note of in scenery, but we did stop at the WalMart in Dickenson, ND to look for a small tabletop propane grill. We have had several inexpensive grills in the last years and we are tired of the poor performance so we wanted to get something better. WalMart...

From Detroit Lakes it is only a couple hours travel through Fargo, to reach Valley City, ND where we were able to spend the evening seeing and taking Merle and Marien Flatt, another of Pat's distant cousins, out to dinner.
Merle then took us on a drive about 18 miles out of town to view the huge number of wind power windmills that have been and continue to be erected and operated in the Valley City area. There are over 200 units there now and more coming this year. We drove around Merle and Marien's farm where the power compnay has...

Our route today: East on I-94 from Medora, North Dakota to Valley City, North Dakota
Around midnight last night, the STRONG odor of skunk woke me. I assumed that a skunk had either passed thru the campground or had been hit on the road nearby. I did not fully wake, ignored the smell, and went back to sleep. This morning, I could still smell the skunk odor.
After breakfast, I went outside and as I walked closer to the back of our 5er the skunk odor was stronger. I also saw that a large Class A motor home was parked behind us that was not...

After a quick breakfast we were on the road by 6:03 a.m.
Relatively easy driving except for about two miles just west of Minneapolis where three lanes of heavy traffic were merged into one. Took 45 minutes to crawl the two miles. A few stretches of road were quite rough and washboard and we bounced along. The shocks that we added to the trailer really worked well.
We stopped at a rest area near Alexandria, Minnesota to eat lunch. Cheryl had everything pre-cut, pre-packaged, pre-planned, and organized as usual. She also has dinner and...

Last night from midnight to 1:30 am the was gusting to 60MPH, I was worried about our coach but I was worried about some of the small travel trailer blowing around. Then from about 5:00am to 6:30 am we had off & on cloudbursts.Mary & I went to Fargo to see if I could find the home I lived in from 1955 thru 1958. Where the home was is now a hospital. I did find Lewis & Clark Elementary where I went to school. Went over to Maxine & Linda's at 5:00. Linda went on the web & discovered the name of the home was Children's Village, I had forgotten...

We were late leaving because I unhooked from shore power before brining in the main awning, thank God for the owners manual. We now look there first when we have a problem. Kathie met us at the Wagon Wheel RV Park when we got in. Went up Tasha's to see Mary's Mom,Marcie. Marks sister & her daughter from Las Vegas were there visiting. It seemed very tense when we walked in. Jenna & I went back to the coach where she said she would be taking care of the student loan I co-signed for. Apparently Mark is bent out of shape because we are cutting...

Today we drove a short trip to Valley City, North Dakota where we camped in the Valley City municipal campground, a simple and inexpensive campground located on the main road in Valley City. We came to see Merle and Marion Flatt who we had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with two years ago on our way to Alaska. Merle is Pat's Dad, Bob Flatt's cousin. Merle and his family are farmers in this great Valley City area and have been here for many decades.
We met with Merle and Marion and joined them for lunch and dinner. When the rain...